


Just Around the Corner

by zoruaherd



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Aged Up, Fluff, M/M, Mall AU, No Personas, Noncanon AU, Wholesome, and akechi just wants to go home, ren is a smooth piece of shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-13 09:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20171665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoruaherd/pseuds/zoruaherd
Summary: Goro Akechi is just trying to get by in life. He may not like working at Claire’s of all places, but it pays the bills and keeps him fed, which is all that matters. His job is about to get a bit more interesting though when a strange customer who works at the Spencer’s just around the corner decides to be a thorn in his side.





	Just Around the Corner

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic in AGES oh my god. I haven’t written since I was 12 but a hilarious conversation inspired me to start a casual but fun Mall AU fic. I plan to add more exposition overtime since I have this fully fleshed out but didn’t want to bombard anyone so bear with me. Hope you enjoy this slightly crack fic!

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Akechi couldn’t help but look at that damn purple clock again. Cheap pop music blared through the store’s speakers as he groaned to himself, seeing how only two minutes had passed since he last checked. When he took a job at Claire’s in a desperate need for money, he didn’t anticipate to like his job.

What he didn’t anticipate was the absolute dread he felt during every waking hour holed up in this colorful, cutesy hellhole.

It wasn’t so bad, really. His pay was surprisingly decent, and he was no longer living off food scraps. He could even afford his own apartment. Granted, it was an absolute piece of garbage, but it beat the dangerous city streets. Besides, it wasn’t hard or tiring, just tedious. However, just because it kept him alive, he didn’t have to like it. Akechi had silently accepted his fate as a corporate slave long ago and pushed through the annoyance and frustration daily, knowing he didn’t have the choice not to.

Deep in reflection, he almost missed the customer right in front of him.

“Sir? ...Sir? Excuse me?”

“Oh, my apologies.” Akechi internally cringed at himself. You’re on the clock dumbass, get it together. “Welcome to Claire’s, miss. How can I assist you today?”

The girl in front of him couldn’t be older than 13. “Where could I find the bracelets?”

“Ah, they’re towards the front of the store, on the right.” He gestured towards one of the aisles, unable to physically care enough to escort her.

She just walked away without a word. Damn spoiled kids. Akechi shook his head at the lack of manners and went back to brooding silently behind the counter, counting down the seconds till he could finally catch a break.

-

9PM came and Akechi was absolutely exhausted.

He had put up with too many middle-aged soccer moms and whiny children for one shift. Some idiot had also managed to get almost all the necklaces tangled, which took about an hour to detangle. He even had to deter a shoplifter of all things. Too many ears were pierced, too many kids were screaming, and he was just done.  
Thirty more minutes and I’ll finally be a free man, he thought as he smiled at the complete emptiness of the store. His manager was in the back starting on the closing procedures, so he just had to endure this a little longer.

Before he could enjoy his alone time, he heard a jingle at the door. Groaning, Akechi looked up at the door. “Good evening and welcome to Claire’s, how may I-“ he cut himself off upon seeing his customer.

He was the absolute antithesis of his regular Claire’s customer. He was in black skinny jeans and had some strange metal band shirt on, and his hair was an absolute fluffy mess. His glasses hid his eyes, but he was able to make out a cocky smirk on his face. His hair was also so fluffy and looks really soft and

“That’s enough, Akechi,” he chastised himself.

“You doing okay?” The man asked, peering over his glasses to reveal dark eyes. Dark, tall and hands- NO.

“Yes!.” He sputtered that out quickly, beating himself up inside. Why am I having these thoughts now of all times?

“Whatever you say. Anyways, uh...you guys do piercings here right?”

Akechi gave the man a look. “Um, yes, we do.”

“How much for just your normal ear piercings?”

Is he stupid or blind? “It’s on the board. The one right in front of me.”

The strange man nodded at Akechi and looked down. “Huh, that’s not as bad as I expected. I’d like to get my ears pierced today.”

“All righ- wait what?” Akechi froze on the spot, completely off guard. His customer service persona almost cracked at this moment.

“I said I wanted my ears pierced. Is there a problem?” The man gave Akechi an amused look, almost saying who are you to judge me when you’re a grown man working in Claire’s.

“I was just...surprised, is all. I don’t mean to offend you, but you just look nothing like my normal clientele.”

“Aw, what gave it away? Was it the jeans? They do make my ass look nice.”

Akechi immediately leaned back, embarrassed. “Why- why on earth would I ever want to look at your butt?”

The man only smirked, his eyes looking a bit too playful for Akechi’s liking. “I didn’t spend 5000 yen on these jeans just to not have my ass acknowledged.”

Akechi was becoming both flustered and furious. “Geez, you’re an idiot.” 

“Aha! I got you to lose your customer service voice!”

“Wait, fu- No, crap!” Akechi groaned. “Are you here to get piercings or to just harass me?” He gave up trying to act properly, tired of playing nice the past few hours.

His smirk finally dropped. “Huh, I had almost forgotten about it.”

“You’re literally the one who requested it.”

“Sorry. You’re just fun to mess with.”

Akechi turned away so that the couldn’t see his blush (from anger, totally not from that damned look the stupid emo gave) and went over to the computer at his desk. “I just need some information of yours and a signature before we can get started. I’m making this quick for my own sake. Name?”

“Ren. Ren Amamiya.”

Akechi just blinks. Normal enough. “All right, Amamiya. Phone number?”

“My number? Damn, you’re taking things faster than I thought.”

“Would you just shut up and-“

“XXX-XXX-XXXX. I can punch it into your phone if you’d-“

“Absolutely not,” Akechi says faster than he probably should’ve. “You know what, I’ll just leave the rest blank so we can get this over with.” He reaches over to a stack of papers and grabs one, handing it to Amamiya. “Just sign here so that I don’t get sued. Oh, and also pay now.”

Without a word, thank god, Amamiya signs and slides it back to Akechi before swiping his debit card. “Shall we head over to the piercing gun?” He jokes, extending his arm like a gentleman.

Akechi smacks his arm down as he exits the counter. “First, don’t touch me. Second, you need to actually pick earrings first. Just follow me.” He glared at Amamiya before walking over towards a rack full of different earrings. “Here’s your selection. For your first time, I recommend something with sterling silver, since people tend to have less infections with those.” Amamiya just grunts and bends down to look at the earrings. Akechi watches him eye each pair. Judging by his looks he is probably going to go with something simple or dark.

“Ah. Found a pair.” Akechi takes a small step back, shocked at how fast he made his choice. Amamiya smirks that damn smirk and struts over, handing over the earrings.

“All right we can- wait a minute.” Akechi looks down and has to use every ounce of his self control to not cringe on the spot. “These are cartoon kittens.”

“I know! They’re so cute, they remind me of my cat at home.”

“You know you’ll have to have these for the next six months, right? As in, you can’t ever take these off?”

Amamiya doesn’t even react. “And?”

“Oh my god. Anamiya Ren, I may absolutely despise you, but I am not about to let you walk out here with fucking cat stud earrings.”

“Oh, spicy. But what’re you going to do about it?” Amamiya takes a step forward and gets a little too close to Akechi’s face. “You can’t stop my impulsively rash decisions.”

Akechi quickly pulls back and just rubs his forehead. He was going to need some aspirin after this. “I’m allowed to refuse your service. It’s for your own good. This is a terrible idea.”

“Come on, I don’t have anything serious to look forward to. Besides, I can just cover it with my hair.” He was too calm about this.

Akechi is at his wit’s end, so he just throws his hands in the air and walks away. “Fine! Okay! Let’s just get this over with so I can go home.” Amamiya follows behind, a bit too giddy about this. He watches as Akechi picks up a piercing gun, swapping out the ends and sanitizing it.

“Oh, that looks dangerous, be careful with that aim.” Akechi looks over and of course Amamiya winks at him before sitting down on the too-small stool set up.

“If you keep running that mouth you may get some free additional piercings right in your forehead.”

“Hey, that’s a good one. You’re more feisty than you look.”

Akechi, for the umpteenth time, shakes his head and inserts the earrings before grabbing a sharpie. “Stay still for a second, I need to mark the spots to pierce.”

“Ah-“

“Staying still also means shutting your damn mouth, you know.”

Working quickly, Akechi quickly leaves a little dot on each of Amamiya’s ears. He caps the sharpie and picks up the gun, making a scene to jokingly cock it like a real gun before holding it very closely to Amamiya’s ear. He bit his lip in concentration as he slowly checked his aim and-

“When are you gon- SHIT!” He presses the trigger, only slightly jumping from Amamiya’s scream. “No warning or anything? I didn’t take your for a sadist.”

“You met me twenty minutes ago. Now shut up and hold still again so I can get this over with.” Without even giving Amamiya a glance he moves to the next ear, quickly repeating the process. Amamiya just slightly jumps and lets out a small yelp this time, seemingly more prepared. He takes a step back and raises his finger to his chin, looking closely at Amamiya. “Congrats! I can’t even be nice about this. You look absolutely stupid.”

“Ooo, I can’t wait to see.” Akechi grabs the hand mirror laying on the nearby table and hands it over before returning to cleaning his gun. “Ah! Absolutely perfect. Just what I needed.”

“You’re actually an idiot. What kind of a grown ass man would do this?”

“A very stylish one, thank you.” Amamiya makes some strange faces in the mirror before standing up and putting it back down. “Next time you see me babe, I’ll be on the cover of Vogue sporting these bad boys.”

Akechi just chooses to ignore him entirely and let himself become flustered later. He’s too tired for this. “We close in five minutes, so you should probably get out.”

“Aw, that’s so harsh. I wanted to spend these next few minutes with you. Quality friendship bonding time, you know?”

“Hah. No. Even if I could have friends, I have no interest in being friends with you. What would I even have in common with some grown emo who gets kitty earrings and harasses retail workers?”

“...Touché.” Amamiya just adjusts his glasses. “Doesn’t mean I’m not coming back though.”

“You don’t even have a reason to come back!”

“Hey, don’t judge. A guy just had his pink sparkly jewelry needs sometimes.” Amamiya laughs at Akechi’s increasingly annoyed, red face and turns to the door. “Guess I’ll leave you alone now.”

“Finally.” Akechi clears his throat and flashes his signature service smile.  
“Thank you for shopping at Claire’s! Have a fan-fucking-tastic day!”

Before Amamiya can get a word in he slams the doors shut and locks them, smiling at the sight of the black haired prick finally leaving him alone. So what if it’s five minutes early? Nobody with half a brain cell would come shopping at this hour. He lets out a deep sigh, allowing himself to decompress as he unclips his name tag from his shirt and grabs a broom, starting his regular closing procedures after a completely irregular day.


End file.
